NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: EAST VILLAGE

By MONTE WILLIAMS

Published: January 22, 1995

A panther-lean man stood on Second Avenue, a ninja mask covering his face, a painting lodged securely under his arm. Maybe it was the mask, but no one approached him.

Four yards away, another man in a tenement doorway had better luck. Three people inspected the pair of women's pumps he pulled from a duffel bag. One placed a fist in his hand and walked off with the shoes.

It was 10:30 on a rainy Monday night -- and the buyers and sellers were just revving up. "Weekends between 11 P.M. and 6 A.M., it's complete bedlam, total anarchy," said Darrell Nelson, 32, owner of San Loco, a Mexican restaurant in the center of the block.

The western side of Second Avenue between St. Marks Place and Seventh Street has long been a vendors market, clogged with people -- many drug- or alcohol-dependent -- who display stolen or discarded wares on blankets. Police crackdowns as recent as July have failed to rid the street of them.

Now, the block has also become the core of a mobile black market, known in the neighborhood as Thieves 'R' Us, where $500 dollar mountain bikes go for $100, and $80 cameras go for $20. Police say it is part of a sophisticated, ethnically diverse, city-wide fencing network.

Six months ago, the market was concentrated on the northeast corner of Ninth Street. Local store owners formed the Second Avenue Merchants Association to get the thieves out of the area. Police moved in, and the thieves moved on -- some to join the vendors on this block, others to Astor Place and still others to Ninth or 10th Streets along Third Avenue.

These purveyors of stolen goods are as peripatetic as they are persistent.

"They do move around," said Lieut. Frank McPartland of the Ninth Precinct. "We're aware of the problem, and we're working on it."

Merchants say the thieves are driving away their customers. "I put up bright lights outside my restaurant, hoping they would scatter the way cockroaches do when you turn on a light," said Paul Kovalevich, owner of Paul's Palace, a hamburger restaurant off St. Marks.

The thieves, who residents say include native-born whites and blacks, Russians, Pakistanis, Chinese, Haitians, Mexicans and Indians, take orders. A buyer can request "cameras, car radios, clothes, golf clubs and bikes -- bikes are big," said Mr. Kovalevich. "A guy drove a mobile home and parked right outside here and started selling." But most carry their booty in backpacks, duffel bags, shopping bags or suitcases.

The buyers are as diverse as the thieves. "Some of them come from Connecticut and New Jersey in Jaguars and Porsches," said Mr. Nelson. Neighborhood people say the most despised buyer is a millionaire, known as Jaguar Joe because of his beloved shiny car. He outbids less fortunate buyers "for kicks," said Mr. Kovalevich.

Merchants say some customers bring their children to the illicit bazaar. "Whole families wait to buy," Mr. Kovalevich said. "Even some decent families!"

On Monday night, local residents who requested anonymity identified as customers a family of four who stood under the shelter of a store awning. When the family saw two police officers, they moved on. When the police walked away, the group returned. A small girl entertained herself by playing patty-cake with an adult man as the rain continued to fall. MONTE WILLIAMS

Photos: Police officers, above, after arresting a man for possession of stolen property at the black market, right, known as 'Thieves R Us.' (Photographs by Steve Berman for The New York Times)